Social competence can be seen as one key aspect in persons with mental health problems and/or learning difficulties towards global functioning and employability (Helson (2010). Diverse clinical attempts highlight the impact of social competence training on persons with learning difficulties or double diagnosis (Margalit and Ronen, 2010). Due to the heterogeneity of the counstruct the operationalization of social competence represents a challenge in current research (Stamatoff 2013).

The current European multicentre study (www.games4competence) focuses on the development and test of social competence training tools, especially for persons with mental health Problems and learning difficulties, also using information and communication technology. Subjects (persons with mild learning difficulties and/or mental health Problems) are trained with a specific training curriculum focusing on relevant aspects of social competence (Schoon 2009). This training process is supported by a set of validating serious (computer) games to analyse transferability of the outcomes. Data concerning usage of serious games in the context of social competence (n=873) and preliminary results of the training will be presented.